Change of Plans

Jay arrived in the Netherlands in January to work on a 9 month degree program. I stayed in Wyoming to finish my school year. The plan was for me to join him in June and stay with him until he completed his courses at the end of September.


We were fully aware that as a US citizen, I could stay in the Netherlands for 90 days before registering for a residence permit. We had been in contact with his school about it, and they told us to contact them when I'd been here about 60 days, and they would help us get the ball rolling. Should be no big deal....{you may see where this is going}...


So, at the beginning of August Jay sent an email to the appropriate person to set up this appointment. We were scheduled to meet with the lady the next week. Unfortunately, she needed some documentation we didn't have (Who travels with their marriage license anyway?), so there was some scrambling to the Randall County Courthouse (Thanks, Duane!), and scanning, and emailing, but we showed up to the appointment prepared. 


What we were not prepared for, though, was the news that the fee to register for a residency permit was now 1200 Euros! We were originally told it would be a couple hundred. Apparently the changes are fairly new because even the ladies at his school were just as shocked as we were. One of them even put her hands over her ears when she heard!


I arrived on June 12, so my 90 days is officially over on September 9. Jay's classes are finished September 23. It didn't take us long to decide that 1200 Euros to stay an extra couple weeks was definitely not worth it (especially since that would more than pay my airfare back to the states).

So, the big change of plans is that I'm not going to get to stay with Jay for the duration of his courses. I'm flying back to Iowa (to Junie and some Diet Dr. Pepper...a bright spot in this unexpected change of events) a week from today, next Sunday. 


He will fly home to the States when he's done at the end of September. I'm sad to be separated from him again, but it's only a few weeks this time. I guess we'll see where this journey takes us from there!